1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle body assembly line system and, more particularly, to an automatic toy tab system capable of assembling the main body framework of a vehicle in a single work station.
2. Description of Related Art
The assembly of vehicle bodies in today's modern assembly plants generally requires that various operations be performed in a succession of work stations. One such operation is the assembly of the main body framework, which is formed by attaching side aperture panels to the vehicle's underbody and roof headers and roof bows to the upper portion of the side aperture panels. In the past, this operation was usually performed by welding the body components together, either manually or by an automated means. In order to reduce the cost of assembling the vehicles, a method of assembly referred to as "toy tabbing" has been developed to replace welding. Toy tabbing is an assembly procedure where the vehicle body components have tab portions which are designed to be bent and crimped about corresponding vehicle body components, such as the underbody, to form a bond thereon.
In the past, these toy tab systems would generally require a large hanger to locate the side aperture panels in a predetermined position alongside the underbody, a second fixture to locate the roof headers and bows, and a third fixture to bend and crimp the vehicle body components in the predetermined position, thus requiring the work station to have enough area to accommodate the different locating and bending fixtures. In order to reduce the area requirements of these stations, the toy tabbing of the vehicle main body framework was performed in a number of stations along the assembly line. It is easy to understand that the more area required in each work station, the increased number of assembly stations and the increased number of assembly fixtures in each station increases the cost of production.
Additionally, most of these toy tab systems are not fully automated, thus requiring some manual operation. This results in low worker efficiency. Another problem associated with most assembly stations is that the stations require large stationary fixtures in order to locate the vehicle body components. Hence, when the body style is changed the work station must be re-tooled. The above mentioned problems make it difficult to achieve the deisred productivity level required by today's manufacturers.